Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday directed all the Superintendents of Police (SP), in the districts to forthwith set up a portal and a dedicated toll free line for the purposes of implementing the provisions under the Mental Health Act.

This service can be used by all, for furnishing information with regard to the whereabouts of any person, who is believed to be suffering from mental illness or is incapable of taking care of himself, maintained the court.
The Court also directed all the SPs and also the Director General of Police (DGP) to file their affidavits of compliance on or before January 5.

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A Division Bench comprising the Acting Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel passed these orders on a petition filed by Anil Kumar Bansal, who urged that necessary directions be supplied to the concerned authorities to comply with the mandatory provisions of the Mental Health Care Act, so that justice is given to all mentally ill persons in the state.He alleged that the mentally ill persons are poorly treated and are not taken care of by the guardian or relatives.

The petitioner has also alleged that the necessary directions be also issued to submit the details of the action taken by the authorities concerned, who are empowered under the Mental Health Care Act.

It was noticed by the Court that in terms of Section 23 of the Mental Health Act, the officer Incharge of Police Station is required to take into protection any person wandering at large within the territorial area falling within his jurisdiction and is also required to take care of persons whom he has a reason to believe are suffering from mental illness and are incapable of taking care of themselves.

During the hearing, the Court observed that due to the geographical conditions of Himachal Pradesh, perhaps it may not be possible for every police officer within the state to search for all such persons, therefore, it is the equal duty and responsibility of every citizen to inform the police officer about the whereabouts of such persons and one way of providing such information can be with the use of information and technology.